Sheffield Chamber of Commerce is advising its members on new employer duties on work-related road safety in light of new legislation.

As of April 2008 the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 means for the first time, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care.

To make members aware of this, a ‘Safe Driving at Work’ pack, aimed at helping businesses make sure they are compliant with all laws surrounding driving, will be distributed to each of the Chamber’s 2,700 members.

The literature has been put together by a partnership group of road safety practitioners from South Yorkshire’s local authorities, as well as South Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Rescue and Safety Camera Partnership and Yorkshire Ambulance.

Chris Hamer, chair of the South Yorkshire Road Safety practitioners, who devised the pack, said: “We’ve developed the information packs to remind directors and company bosses that they have a moral, as well as a legal duty to manage their employees’ risks when they are on the road.

“The material in the pack will help develop a company’s driving for work policy.”

The pack includes a reference guide book, mobile phone awareness poster and dashboard speed limits reminder amongst other important material, such as a ‘Safe Driving at Work’ booklet, all of which will help businesses deal with managing occupational road risk.

Helen Rana, policy and representation manager at Sheffield Chamber, said: “This is of huge importance to employers. This pack will be distributed to all Sheffield Chamber members and we are also informing them about these developments in the Quarterly Legislation Update.

“The pack will aid senior managers and directors in putting systems in place to ensure they can protect their workforce and reduce the risk of prosecution under the new act, should the worst occur.”

The pack has received approval from Department for Transport, the Highways Agency, the Confederation of Freight Operators and many others. For more information on safe driving at work, contact Chris Hamer on 01226 772 193 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it